


Winner Gets the Universe

by stelian



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alien Wylan, Alternate Universe- Voltron, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, Prison Escape, Space AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 23:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9687389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelian/pseuds/stelian
Summary: Seven space nerds. One giant alien cat robot... thing. Lots of space shenanigans.Or, a mission to a moon of Pluto goes horribly wrong; five people break out of a seemingly impenetrable prison ship; two royal aliens are woken up after 10,000 years; and the universe's most dysfunctional team must somehow unite to defeat space capitalism. And more.(no knowledge of Voltron required)





	1. Chapter 1

Nina knows the story of Voltron.  

After all, she grew up with it. Some of her first bedtime stories were about how, when the universe is in great need, five paladins and five lions will unite and form the universe’s greatest protector. She remembers sitting in her mother’s lap in the cockpit of the Yellow Lion, fascinated by all of the levers and buttons. She remembers huddling with her father by one of the bay windows, watching for the sign that her mother survived another battle.

She also remembers that last battle, where it was obvious her mother would not be returning.

Now, 10,000 years of sleep later, she looks at the five faces who are supposedly the next great defenders of the universe.

“Oh dear.”

She wonders if she can go back to sleep for another couple thousand years.

* * *

 

The first thing Inej registers is the pain.

Her hearing is fuzzy and her vision is clouded. Dust whips around her and settles in her eyes, already stinging from blood and sweat. She tries to roll over, but her right arm just sends sparks of pain and refuses to move.

Right. That happened.

It comes back to her in a flurry. Two humongous fighters, one shaped like a centipede and the other reminiscent of a large bird with stonelike wings, who had kicked their asses. The last thing she remembers is the centipede, which had been wrapped around one of the pillars, uprooting the whole thing as she plunged her knife into a gap in its plating.

Someone turns her over and she’s inclined to spit in their face, but her mouth is completely dry.

“Hey, I’m not here to hurt you. Relax. They’ll get you fixed up. I promise.”

She doesn’t believe them. Well. That’s wrong. She _does_. But she doesn’t want to know what their definition of “fix” will be.

Later, she wakes up with a sheet of metal where her arm used to be, and she hates to admit that she’s right.

* * *

 

Jesper, it turns out, gets _really excited_ about alien ice samples.

“Okay, statistically it’s almost impossible for aliens _not_ to exist. And just imagine! Even if we find some tiny prokaryotes or unicellular organisms in this ice, we still technically found the first aliens. Can you believe it? We are so far out; no other human has ever been this far from earth. Guys, this is so cool. It’s worth months in a tiny tube.”

Inej, who’s carefully pulling out the tube of samples, mutters, “Jesper, could you please tone down the fangirling just a little bit?” Despite what she says, she’s smiling. It _is_ exciting, being the first humans to make it this far.

“Did you guys hear that?” Matthias says, looking up from the extractor for a minute.

“No?” Kaz says, because _of course_ he had to come down with them. Having another pair of hands is helpful, but Jesper is still a little bitter that he decided to tow along.

He didn’t hear anything at first, but eventually Jesper does hear a slight rumbling. “Is it seismic?” he says.

“I don’t think so,” Inej responds, “I don’t feel anything. Maybe it’s a jammed signal?”

Abruptly the sound gets louder until it’s deafening, and then Jesper looks up.

“Oh, fuck,” Kaz says, and that’s about accurate. Up above them is a massive ship that’s clearly not at all Earthly, and Jesper is suddenly reminded of his comments about aliens. Oh, the irony. Matthias yells something about running, but a beam opens up above them and Jesper hits his head on _something_ and he’s not aware of anything else.

When he wakes up he’s kneeling on a smooth, metal floor. In front of him, a voice says something about “primitive scientists” and “druids” and “see what they know”. Beside him, Matthias is saying something about them being from a peaceful planet.

Right when Jesper is finally fully aware, he sees the guard behind him clock him on the back of the neck with what looks vaguely like some sort of sci-fi blaster. Matthias immediately slumps to the floor.

_Okay, I take back everything I said about being excited to find aliens._

* * *

 

Matthias has long since become unbothered by the sound of the crowd.

They yell for him, like always. He’s popular. He’s been popular since he took down that brute with the weird energy orb what seems like years ago.

From the moment he steps in the ring to the instant his enemy is on the ground, his mind goes blank. It’s easy that way. Don’t think, don’t react, just hover somewhere nearby but not here. After all, that’s how he’s made it this far.

He can feel his mind detaching the moment he steps into the gladiator ring for this fight. He doesn’t expect anything different, despite the hype he knows is surrounding it.

Except his opponent steps into the ring, left hand clutching what looks like a slim, metal cane. For a moment Matthias just stares, taking in the lean body and obvious limp, and he wonders why this fight has been so talked about.

He looks again.

The hair is longer, the skin even paler (if that was possible). The limp that was bad before even worse. The set, determined line of his mouth.

“Kaz?” he says, his voice barely audible over the roar of the crowd.

Kaz stops. Stares.

“Matt?”

“You’re alive,” Matthias says, followed by Kaz just seconds later.

Matthias steps forward, forgetting where he is for a moment. He’s snapped back into reality when Kaz shifts the cane in his hand so it’s horizontal, and with a _hiss_ it lights up with energy.

“You _ass_ ,” Kaz says, and he lunges.

* * *

 

The first mission to Kerberos, the tiny, insignificant moon of Pluto, goes missing a little more than halfway to the destination.

It’s all that the news covers for the first few days. They pin it on engine failure; a simple shortcoming in the shuttle design caused a small explosion that killed the entire crew instantly. The young engineer isn’t _explicitly_ named, but it’s clearly implied to be his fault.

“It’s a national tragedy,” the young reporter says, fake concern dripping from her voice. “The Galaxy Garrison applauds the brave crew for giving their lives in the name of expanding our universe. We will not forget their names.”

Kaz immediately knows it’s a lie.

* * *

 

Jesper can’t stop pacing.

Soldier’s barracks are a step up from basic prisoner cells that, at the worst, were foul-smelling and crammed with nine creatures; however, they’re still a step down from the room given to the Pair-Fighting Champions. There had been a _bed_ there. An honest to god _bed._ Of course sleeping in it was impossible because they were used to a floor, but the thought was enough.

Inej stands by the door, glancing out the slit they called a window every few seconds. Her metal fingers are tapping again.

“Inej, you’ve got the pattern. You don’t need to keep testing it.”

“It’s better than worrying all of the time,” she snaps, hardly looking at him. For a while, Jesper’s quiet after that.

When he can’t stand the silence he asks, “How much longer?” It’s not long after he last speaks.

“Just a few more rotations,” she says. “I think the match has started by now, but we need to be sure. Either way there’s enough of time for us to go unnoticed.”

It’s finally time. They can finally get out of this hell ship, maybe find their way back to Earth and…

And do what? Tell everyone about how they were kidnapped by evil alien capitalists? That would be met _so well._

“It’s time,” Inej says, swiping the door open.

They run through the hallways, ducking just out of the way of sentries. On their last few patrols assignments they’d mapped the way to the escape pods, so it’s easy to visualize the way. It’s almost too easy.

It seems to take no time for Jesper to reach the door that leads to the pod bay, although Inej keeps moving.

“Where are you going? This is it.”

She gives him a look. “I’m pretty sure it’s the next one.”

“No, the next one is some kind of control room. This is definitely the room.” Inej opens her mouth to protest, but Jesper cuts her off. “Ah-ah. Who did the last patrol?”

“Fine,” she says, placing her hand on the panel beside the door. Jesper holds his breath for a moment before it slides open.

That was one of Jesper’s better ideas. Once he’d figured out that most Galra scanners simply looked for like biology, it was simple to conclude that Inej’s prosthetic arm would work as well. All it had taken was a bit of rooting around inside to turn on the mechanism that worked for doors, and they had access to everything.

(It’s a little concerning that the option was there albeit disabled, but that’s a concern for later.)

Jesper steps inside before he realizes he was wrong.

It turns out the pod bay _is_ next door.

* * *

 

They make an excellent team.

Inej is level-headed under all situations; for all intents, a perfect pilot. Kaz is a bit reckless and impulsive, but he’s genuinely talented at flying a spaceship and there’s no one who knows more about physics theory than him. Matthias is the fastest mechanic and engineer the Garrison has seen in years. And Jesper’s just… Jesper. He’s pretty much good at everything, but especially communications and biology.

The Second Kerberos Team won’t fail, the reports say. Even though the crew is awfully young, they’re a talented and motivated group. Their simulation scores and test flights are astounding.

And then they sneak off campus one weekend, a few weeks before launch. No one’s sure of specifics, but something happens to Kaz and, the next thing they know, he’s landed two people in the hospital and is nursing a nasty concussion himself. Quietly, the Garrison removes him from the mission and neglects to replace him.

It’s a bit of a wrinkle in their perfect routine. Inej, without a copilot, suddenly has has a much larger share of work to do and much less opportunity for sleep.

There’s still high hopes going into it. Just not quite as high as before.

* * *

Wylan knows he’s always been a disappointment.

Even as a child, he was never _quite_ enough to be an heir. He wasn’t quite bright enough, wasn’t quite bloodthirsty enough, wasn’t quite interested enough in expansion and colonization. When he reached the age where a prince’s illiteracy was intolerable, it was hardly even surprising.

So he’s quiety reassigned, shipped off and given a job as a “researcher” while his father tries to scrub his name from history. It’s working, clearly, as most aren’t even aware the Emperor has a son anymore.

It’s when he’s on a commander’s ship studying quintessence that he feels the call in his mind.

It feels like safety, hope, warmth.

It feels like _home_ , except home is something he’s never really felt before.

And then he sees the gladiator girl who was thrown off of the pillar she clung to when it collapsed, and the presence in his head says _her, her, her._ He sees her partner throw a rock that blinds the birdlike creature, and the presence in his head stirs again.

He watches the Champion take down foe after foe, and the presence cheers with him. Finally, he sees the laborer dragged in and thrown into a six-way free-for-all fight, and there’s a sound like purring in the back of his head.

So he plans.

* * *

 Kaz sits in a transport ship, once again surrounded by other prisoners, and _laughs._

Those with eyes (or eye equivalents) just look at him, probably wondering when this small alien went insane. Maybe that’s what this is. Maybe this is months of impossibility and strangeness making itself known.

He’s going back.

He gets into one fight at a labor camp and the wardens decide he’s a fighter with too much potential to be hanging around here, so they send him to the nearest ship with a gladiator arena.

He’s going back to the _exact same place_ he was sent from.

_Take that, Matt._

Because, really, what the hell was that?

* * *

 

They don’t realize they have a stowaway until they’re just past the edges of Earth’s gravity. Hours of non-stop piloting has drained Inej, and she’s starting to slump over in her chair _already_. She’d been training to cope with sleep deprivation, of course; but there was only so much carefully controlled training could prepare her for.

Jesper had already gone to sleep and Matthias is tinkering with some sort of control valve that wasn’t completely working but was still functioning. The quiet without Jesper’s non-stop talking is doing nothing to solve her sleepiness.

“So, go take a nap.”

Inej jumps out of her skin and grabs the voice’s neck.

For a second, she wonders how long it’s really been. There’s no way she’s been awake long enough to start hallucinating, but there under her grasp is Kaz Fucking Brekker, grinning at her.

“Matt? Are you seeing this too?”

Matt startles, apparently about as awake as she is. He turns to look at her and immediately screams, just a little bit.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“You were _kicked off the mission_.”

“I do what I want,” Kaz says, shrugging. “You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to break into one of these.”

Jesper floats in at that point, yawning. When he sees Kaz he stops and points, and Inej and Matt both say, “Yes, that’s Kaz and you’re not hallucinating,” before he can even ask.

“Okay, Brekker, I don’t care what you think you’re doing, but I swear I will throw you out of this ship if I have to. This is my big chance and I am _not_ going to let you fuck it up because you’re some edgy rule breaker. Do you understand?” Inej says slowly, trying to keep her voice even and clear.

Kaz just laughs while Matt and Jesper stare blankly.

“If you don’t answer me, I will break your wrist. Do you understand?”

“Fine. I understand.”

Her grip finally loosens, but Kaz’s grin doesn’t fade. Smug bastard. “Listen, we’re going to call Mission Control and find out what to do with you. After that, I’m going to take a nap so we don’t crash into an asteroid or miss Kerberos. I’m going to trust you to fly this thing without killing us all. Can I do that?”

“Inej, darling. I was your copilot. Why would you not be able to trust me?”

“You just _radiate_ trustworthiness, Brekker,” Matt says. “I’m on her side.”

It turns out there’s nothing you can do to get rid of a stowaway once you’re out of Earth’s atmosphere except let him tag along.

At least Kaz has learned to be afraid of Inej.

* * *

 

The minute Inej opens the wrong door Jesper slams it shut, but the damage is already done.

“HOLY SHIT WE NEED TO _GO_ ,” he yells, probably too loud for a stealthy prison escape, but that doesn’t matter now that Jesper probably just fucked the whole thing up anyway. He grabs Inej to pull her along (he’s faster than she is to begin with; after all, tiny legs can only run so fast), but then a clawed hand grabs _him_ and pulls him back through the doors.

Inej is attacking the person the moment she’s released, arm lit up and hella deadly, but they’re at least fast enough to avoid most of her attempts. Interestingly, he never tries to hit back. At least, he doesn’t hit back until he pulls a weird chip out of his pocket and manages to catch Inej’s arm (which probably burns like shit, but he doesn’t seem phased) and slams it against the metal surface.

In an instant, the glow fades and the whole thing hangs limp at her side.

Inej glances down for a second, yells, “Oh, _fuck you_ ,” and then Jesper lunges.

He ends up thrown against a control board.

“Guys, I’m not trying to hurt you. That really wasn’t necessary.”

Jesper finally manages to get a good look at the person he was fighting and, well.

It’s a kid. It’s clearly Galra, what with purple fur; fluffy, catlike ears; decent height; claws; and featureless, glowing yellow eyes. But, he’s pretty sure it’s a kid. He’s never seen a Galra that small before, and there’s something about the way the fur looks fluffier than the adults that hints towards youth. (shit he’s also kind of cute wait focus Jesper)

“Are we supposed to believe you?” Inej snaps, cradling her prosthetic arm with her real one.

“Yes, you should. I was actually going to help you get out of here, but you demanded to fight instead.” Inej _growls_ at that, and the sound is really intimidating considering it’s coming for a 4’11 girl who currently only has the use of one arm. “I can turn your arm back on if you promise not to do your glowy thingy again.”

“Inej, please just listen to the guy. I think we can trust him.”

Her eyes dart between Jesper and the Galra for a few seconds before her shoulders deflate and she huffs, “ _Fine_.”

After the chip is out and Inej finally looks a little less pissed off, the Galra rights a chair that was flipped in their fight and sinks down into it. “So you’re escaping, right?”

Jesper and Inej glance at each other for a moment before answering, “Yes?”

“And how were you planning on getting out of here?”

They don’t answer.

“You were planning on stealing a pod, right? You were just going to sneak your way over and use your fancy arm to unlock one and just fly away. That’s a great idea! Except you have no idea where you are right now, so you’ll probably just drift for a long time and probably end up on a planet controlled by us and end up right back here anyway! That, or you do manage to get away, but _come on_ did you really not think they’d put some kind of tracker in that arm of yours? Or your eye?”

“Well, we _thought_ it was a good plan,” Inej mutters.

“It was a good plan, except you’re far from the first ones to think of it. Do you know how many escaped prisoners we’ve ever had not come back?” He waits for a moment, as if expecting them to answer. After a short, awkward pause, he says, “One. In thousands of years, we’ve had one escapee not die or get recaptured.”

Well fuck.

“So why are you telling us this? Are you trying to just, like, break our spirits before you send us back?” Jesper asks, suddenly realizing this kid is a lot less cute than he’d originally thought.

The Galra just looks at him for a moment, and Jesper really wishes these guys had pupils or irises or _something_ because it’s really hard to read expressions when the eyes are just glowing holes. “Of course not. I’m trying to _help_ you get out.”

Once again, they just look at him.

“Look, I can cover for you to get out, I can disable your trackers, and there’s a special ship you can take to get out of here.”

“Okay, you’re going to unload some really specific, difficult condition to this _right now_ , I can feel it-”

“There are two conditions.”

“Nailed it.” Jesper shouldn’t be proud of being right in this case, but why not.

“What are they?” Inej says, her voice still a little growly.

“First, there are two other prisoners you need to pick up. One of them is needed to get out of here, and the other will help you in the future.”

“So what’s the other one?”

The Galra’s mouth quirks. Is he- is he _smirking_?

“You need to take me with you.”

* * *

 Matthias knows Kaz won’t make it through another fight.

At least getting transferred to the arena means there’s no more creepy druid aliens hanging around and staring at them. There’s also a slight possibility that they could see Jesper and Inej again, but he’s heard enough about the gladiator fights from other prisoners that he knows there’s a small chance of the two of them surviving.

They’re lucky enough to be thrown into a first-blood sort of fight. It’s a lowkey event, comparatively; there’s relatively few spectators and the prisoners simply fight each other. Whoever gets blood drawn first loses and is sent… _somewhere_ , probably one of the labor camps he’d heard talk about. The winners are kept for another round.

 _They’re seeding_ , he thinks, recalling the tournament style back when he did wrestling in high school.

Kaz goes before him and manages a quick fight, but Matthias notices the way he lurches backwards to avoid a swing and his bad leg locks up and then twists into an unnatural position. He limps out of the ring while Matthias enters and stares down a slight, rather rabbit-like alien that doesn’t stand a chance against any opponent, much less one of Matthias’s stature.

And then they’re lined up again for a second round of weeding out the weak, and Kaz barely makes it out, dragging his leg behind him with his teeth gritted while Matthias still hardly struggles.

The third round is a different style. With the the numbers significantly reduced, they switch from first-blood to timed matches that only end early for death. From behind, Matthias can see the way Kaz leans heavily on the wall, weight shifted off of his bad leg entirely.

He thinks of the work camps compared to the arena that’ll probably kill him.

Kaz’s opponent, a broad creature with clawlike arms and horns protruding from the sides of each of its heads, steps out, and Matthias thinks of the work camps compared to the arena that’ll _definitely_ kill him.

The guard aims the weapon as Kaz, prodding him along, and Matthias lunges. He wrestles the thing out of its hands, yells something about wanting blood (it’s probably horribly melodramatic, but he doesn’t care in the situation), and strikes.

Kaz stumbles backwards, leg finally giving way as a deep slice opens up on the knee, and when Matthias pins him down he says, “I’m sorry. I hope you find your brother.”

As the guards pull Matthias up, he hears Kaz say, “The fuck, Matt?”

* * *

 Kaz is never told of his brother’s death directly.

He’s at breakfast, staring absentmindedly into a bowl of cereal while Jesper prattles on beside him when it suddenly goes silent. He looks up and sees Commander Haskell standing there, waiting for quiet, and then he’s saying something about the brave men on the Kerberos mission.

Kaz’s blood runs cold and a sort of distant feeling washes over him. This doesn’t affect him, right? He’s just giving minor news. Nothing happened.

Haskell says something about “engine failure”.

He’s aware of Jesper gripping his shoulder.

He hears “Jordie Rietveld”.

After the news he’s sent home for a week as a “mourning period”. Kaz takes a train to the edge of the town nearest to the Garrison and then walks through the desert to reach the little shack that had been home since his dad had died. Mom isn’t there, of course. She’s probably out chasing a lead and didn’t even hear of Jordie’s death.

“Death”.

For days he sits outside under the desert stars, listening to alien radio signals, and he knows. The engines didn’t fail; for one, Jordie would never have let that happen. But whatever happened to the crew wasn’t at all natural. Perhaps his mother’s ramblings weren’t all a silly obsession. Maybe she really was on to something.

Either way, Kaz knows he needs to find his brother somewhere out there in space.

* * *

Kuwei returns to consciousness with a start.

He lurches for his father, begging him to not do this, to fight and to protect the planet like he’d promised. Except the arms that catch him are not his father’s.

His mind is fuzzy from the sleep, but the eyes he looks into are foreign. One is a dark, murky brown; the other is mechanical and a strange yellowish color. It’s definitely Galra, like…

Like the ships that had attacked his planet. And probably destroyed them.

Beside him, another pod deactivates, and he sees Nina stumble out.  

At least Nina’s here. At least he isn’t alone with five strange people who are staring at him as if he has some kind of answer.

Kuwei has no idea what he’s doing, but that’s not unusual.

* * *

   
“I don’t want to fight you,” Matthias says.

There’s no other option, not really. After all, it is a death match and the crowd is roaring for another victory by the Champion. In the past, Matthias has refused to kill his opponents, but they ended up dead more often than not anyway. Still, he  might be able to find his way out of this one.

Or, maybe he could if Kaz would actually cooperate.

They must’ve done something to his bad leg because he barely hesitates to put weight on it; however, when he came in, he’d been leaning heavily on the cane/weapon. Maybe it was an act? Or maybe it was another modification.

“Fuck you, Matt. What the hell was that for? It didn’t even _work_ ,” Kaz yells as he makes for another strike that Matthias easily sidesteps. He’s gotten fairly good, Matthias has to admit.

“You wouldn’t have survived! I’m sorry!” As Matthias speaks, he dives out of the way of another strike-

And runs into a wall.

It’s then that something weird occurs to him.

Sure, Kaz has been attacking ferociously, but his swings are wide and poorly angled. Mostly, he’s been going for Matthias’s arms, which are a fairly poor target for an actual fight. Finally, the whole time he’s been moving in a certain direction.

Kaz surges forward, grabbing Matthias’s neck. Out of the corner of his eye he can see him light up the cane/weapon, lift it up-

And slam it into the wall beside Matthias.

The effect is instant. Throughout the whole arena, the power flickers off and Matthias can hear the telltale sound of sentries powering down.

Kaz grabs his hand and pulls him towards the entrance. 

* * *

 

“It’s a shame, what happened to this one’s eye. I’m sure he was an excellent shot.”

“He and that girl were the best pair fighters to come through the arena in recent years. I’ve never seen anyone fight the way they do. After this fight, we were about to draft them into the army. Now…”

“There’s too much potential to send them to labor camps. We _could_ throw them back into the arena, but he’s half blind and the girl’s arm can’t be saved. I don’t know if they’d survive.”

“I can fix them, if soldiers are what you desire.”

There’s some sort of bandage covering Jesper’s eyes, and he’s only half-awake anyway. But he still recognizes the voice as Tante Heleen, head druid, and tries his hardest not to shudder.

A clawlike hand grips his chin and roughly peels the bandage off of his face. Immediately, light floods half of his vision.

“This is nothing. I’ve made more complex. However, I will need to study the anatomy first.”

Later, Jesper finds out that having a robot eye is a lot less cool than it sounds.

* * *

Running towards the arena is that last thing Inej wants to do.

Her memories keep going back and forth between now and then, and she has half a mind to ignore the Galra- _Wylan, he’d said his name was_ \- and try her luck at escaping anyway, but Jesper seems determined to listen to him.

They’re halfway there when the lights flicker out.

“What the hell?” Jesper says, and then something slams into him.

Inej lights up her arm, ready to fight, but then the glow illuminates a face and- Oh god. Not him. “Not you. Please tell me you’re not the one we’re supposed to be looking for,” she says, holding up her arm as a threat.

“Looking for?” Kaz says, rolling off of Jesper. “Why are you looking for me?”

“You guys are alive?” says a voice behind Kaz, and Inej startles before she realizes who it is.

“ _Matt?_ ” she yells, and Matt is lunging forward and hugging her, avoiding her still-lit metal arm. “We thought you died after interrogation. Oh my god, are you the champion?”

“I thought _you_ were dead!” he responds, pulling her tighter. “But, yeah, that’s me.”

From the ground, Kaz coughs. “This is touching, really. But we’re escaping, and I assume you are too, so it’s probably a good idea to get going.”

“I have to agree,” says yet another new voice, and Inej really is ready to fight this time until she sees Wylan step forward. “That was pretty clever, flooding the power like that. But we don’t have long until we’re followed.”

Wylan leads them down winding hallways and seemingly looping corridors until they step into a massive hangar.

In which there sits a giant, red, robot cat… thing, surrounded by a strange, semiopaque barrier.

“Okay, that’s cool and all, but how are we getting out of here?” Inej says, voicing the thoughts they’re surely all having.

For a moment, Wylan’s voice falters. “One of you should feel some sort of connection to this thing. Do you?” There’s no answer. “Okay, statistically, one of you should feel _something_ right now.”

“I’m feeling like I want to get out here right now, does that count?”

Wylan just gives him A Look.

Inej glances over at her right, and it’s then that she sees that Kaz has stepped forward, just the slightest bit. She tilts her head to the side as he takes another tiny step forward, and then another, and then he places his hand on the semi solid barrier.

It flickers and disappears. The cat’s eyes glow and it lets out a roar, a strange mix of organic and mechanical.

“I _knew_ it!” Wylan yells, sounding like an excited child, and he ushers everyone inside and designates Kaz as pilot.

* * *

 

The next few things happen quickly.

  1. They fly away from the ship that was “home” for… however long.
  2. A strange hole opens in front of them, and they pass through.
  3. They land on a planet in front of what looks like a castle.
  4. Two people emerge from frozen pods.



* * *

 

“... and that’s how we got here,” finishes the tiny one with the small tuft of white in her dark braid. Nina pales.

“Okay, you know what? Kuwei, you’re royalty, you can handle the new paladins. I’m going to go take a nap for another 10,000 years.”  
“But Nina-!” he protests. Nina puts a finger to his lips.

“I believe in you. Uh… good luck. See you later.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which nothing but conversations happen and inej is lowkey Suffering (also we're more or less linear now, with the exception of the first and last segments. they take place shortly before the second to last fragment)

Years of preparation to be close advisor to the royal family has prepared Nina for a great many things. She’s a skilled mechanic, well-versed in diplomacy, and accurately prepared to be a one-woman hospital, if necessary..

This, however, is outside of her realm of expertise.

“Okay, so we’re pretty sure they’re all meant to be the next generation of paladins, correct?” she asks Kuwei, whose hands are pressed to the castle’s console, still searching the starfield for _something_. He gives no sign of hearing her. “Kuwei? You there?” No response. She walks over and tugs on his ear, causing the prince to yelp and jump backwards.

“ _Quiznak_ , Nina, that was uncalled for!”

She rolls her eyes.

“It wasn’t, because you’ve been zoning out since you woke up. I get that you’re scanning for… whatever you’re looking for, but we have a job to do. Those creatures have…” She glanced at the timer on her wrist- “Approximately three vargas until they awaken, and we should have a plan by then. It is, after all, our duty to seem like we know what we’re doing.”

 _Seem_ is the important word. They’ll never really know what they’re doing, but as long as it seems slightly like they do everything _should_ be fine.

“Sorry,” Kuwei says, stepping down from the controls and rubbing his head. He sits down on the small platform; a moment later Nina joins him. “What were you saying?”

Nina sighs, but repeats, “Our guests are the new paladin generation, correct?”

Kuwei doesn’t immediately respond; instead, he continues rubbing the bluish marks under his eyes. “I think so? I mean, the grumpy one is definitely connected to Red. And I think I’m feeling the right energy from the rest of them? It’s hard to tell though because they’re all so thoroughly… Galra.”

Nina can’t sense quintessence the way Kuwei can. In seconds, he can look at a person and just _know_ things about them from their basic energy. She isn’t that lucky, but even she can recognize the overwhelming sensation of Galra from them. Of course, one of them _is_ Galra, two of them are heavily modified, and the others were simply in their presence for however long.

“... You know what this means though, right?” she asks, and Kuwei just looks at her, not understanding. “We need to _assign them Lions_ ”

“Oh,” Kuwei says. “ _Oh no._ ”

 

The whole conversation is all Matthias’s fault, really.

After their first introductions, a flustered Kuwei retreats into the kitchen while Nina outlines the story of Voltron and what their lives will be like from this point forward. As she finishes describing the five Lions and how they combine into one, Kuwei stumbles out with a large bowl filled with…

“Is that supposed to be edible?” Inej asks, making a vaguely disgusted face as she stares down at it. “There’s _no way_ it is.”

The bowl is filled over the brim with what looks like some sort of semi-solid goop in a bright green color, mixed with little flecks of red. Vaguely, it reminds her of Jell-O, except it looked even _less_ real, if that were possible.

“Excuse you, this is _genuine_ Altean food, made by some of the best chefs from the planet, considered a delicacy in many parts of the Universe so, yes, it is edible and you should just _shut up and eat it_ ,” Kuwei says in response, slamming the bowl on the table and not taking a single breath the whole time. From somewhere behind him Nina coughs, and Kuwei quickly composes himself. “Sorry. But it _is_ the only food that survived for 10,000 years.”

“I mean, this doesn’t look _that_ bad. We all did eat what looked like a piece of cardboard for…” Matthias starts, his sentence rapidly trailing off as everyone’s eyes turn to stare at him.

Because it’s a question they’ve all had, at one point or another. Inej and Jesper used to discuss it when they couldn’t sleep, kept awake by endless patrols going past them or by the fact that they couldn’t get their minds to slow down. How long had they been on that ship?

Jesper looks at Wylan, who slumped into his chair the moment the pause started, as if expecting an answer. “I don’t know. The first time I saw any of you was, uh… that one fight,” he says, looking over at Inej.

“What fight?” she says. “I’m pretty sure I never saw you until this morning or whatever time that was.”

“You know, the one. The one that happened.”

“Wylan.”

“You know, this was a big deal, I’m surprised you don’t remember it-”

“ _Wylan_ ,” she repeats, leaning forward and raising her arm as if threatening to light it.

“ _Fine_ ,” he says with a sigh. “The one where you lost your arm. You know, that one.” He pauses and then adds, offended, “You really don’t remember me?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Inej sees Kuwei and Nina retreating to another room as a universal statement of ‘ _not up for this shit_ ’ and, honestly, she doesn’t blame them. “I don’t really remember anything right around then, actually. It’s sort of a blank spot, you know?”

“I understand,” Matthias says from across the table, actually eating some of the disgusting goo that no one else has touched. “I don’t remember most of my fights. It’s weird because I know they happened, but it’s all sort of fuzzy.”

Jesper, beside Inej, just shrugs. “I don’t know. I think I remember a lot of it pretty well. Except for around that fight. I’m kind of out there too.”

It’s then that they all look at Kaz expectantly, who so far has been pointedly Not Participating in the conversation. After a moment he rolls his eyes and says, “I’m missing a little bit of time right around when _Matt_ decided he’s all-knowing and has no issue fucking up my life, thanks.”

And that, Matthias decides, is the end of that conversation.

 

“Hey, Nina, are you busy?”

Inej speaks before the Altean comes into view; otherwise, she it probably wouldn’t be necessary. She gets no response; Nina seems to be engrossed in the camera-like apparatus in her hands. For a moment Inej wonders about her lack of response, but then she sees the table in front of her and the still, corpse-like body on it-

 _Matthias_ , she realizes with a start.

Inej is in a defensive stance before she can think, weight shifted between her legs and Galra arm in front of her, willing to hurt Nina if it means saving Matthias. Nina, at that moment, turns around and nearly drops the thing in her hands, and Matthias sits up and starts saying something that Inej doesn’t listen to-

“Hey, Inej, it’s all good. You don’t need to attack Nina. No one’s in trouble.”

It takes her a moment to calm down, but after a second she does listen to Jesper and relaxes her stance. Matthias, now standing, walks towards her with a concerned look on his face. Behind him Nina stands, confused.

“Sorry,” Inej says. “I just-” _I thought I was still on the ship_ , she thinks. _I didn’t remember where I was._ Jesper wraps an arm around her shoulder, and she slumps against him. “I’m sorry. We’ll come back.”

“No, you’re fine,” Nina says, waving them forward. “We’re almost done anyway.”

“Did you guys have the same idea I did?” Matthias asks, lying back down. “I came down to, you know… check for modifications. Since we were discussing missing time, I was worried.”

Nina waves the little scanner in her hands. “Plus we decided it’s a good idea to have data on your physiology on hand. Just in case, you see.”

“That… was exactly what we were thinking,” Jesper says. From the table, Matthias snaps and points at them with a wink, causing Nina to slap his arms down with warning to stay still.

After a few moments Nina clicks off the device in her hands, taps a few buttons, and then a projection appears on the wall. Most of it is written in an indecipherable script, but Inej can recognize diagrams of organs and what looks like vital signs. Taking up the most space, though, is a what looks like an outline of Matthias’s body. Nina flips through screens, causing various overlays to appear.

“Whoa, did you get all of that from just that little machine? Is that some sort of x-ray? No, wait, that’s way more advanced, oh my _god_ Inej space is so cool-” Jesper says, leaving her side to investigate the device in Nina’s hands.

Once Nina’s flipped through all of the slides, she turns to Jesper and Inej. “Do one of you want to go next? It’ll be easier to analyze results if I compare all of you.”  
“Should we get Kaz down here?” Matthias says, looking over his screen. “You know, so it’s the most accurate.”

“We can try, but I doubt he’ll do it,” Inej responds, crossing her arms. “Besides, aren’t his joints fucked up anyway? It’ll be hard to compare him.”

Matthias just shrugs. “It might be worth a try. Jesper, can you go talk to him?”

“What, me?” Jesper says, glaring with his human eye. “Hell no.”

“Well, it’ll have to be,” Matt says. “Inej can’t look at him without wanting to punch him in the face, and he’s pissed at me, so that leaves you. Plus, weren’t you guys super close back at the Garrison?”

“I don’t know, man. We were, but he got really weird after his brother died. And not like a grieving way. Like, a sneaking out all of the time and not paying attention in class kind of way. We haven’t been that close since then.”

“Huh,” Matt says. “The more you know. Anyway, can you _please_ try to fetch him?¨

Jesper rolls his eyes but goes anyway.

  


“Prince Kuwei, can I talk to you?”

Kuwei pulls his attention away from the scanners to see the Galra (-what was his name, it started with a W or something weird-) standing behind him. Maybe he’d been there for a long time. Kuwei can’t tell.

Looking at him, Kuwei briefly thinks of the flashing purple that enclosed the planet before his father put him to sleep. He thinks of the armies that looked so similar to the child standing there, staring at him as if only he has an answer to some divine question. It’s difficult to separate the two, but he tries.

“Just Kuwei. I don’t have any people to be prince of anymore, do I?”

The Galra’s lips quirk up just the slightest amount. “I guess we’re both former princes now, aren’t we?” Kuwei just tilts his head. “Uh, my name’s Wylan. I guess I never really told _you_. But Emporer Vaneck is my father. I was supposed to inherit the empire at some point but I… failed out of that position.”

“I didn’t know Vaneck had a son,” Kuwei says after a moment. “Actually, I didn’t know he was still alive. That shouldn’t be possible.”

“He doesn’t talk about me much,” Wylan responds, soft. “Anyway, I’m pretty I was born a long time after you… you know. And don’t ask me anything about him. I’m pretty much cut off from him.”

“Interesting,” Kuwei says, glancing back at the scanners behind him. “Is Marya your mother, then?”

“Ah, yes, but she’s not around anymore. He’s got a new wife now. She’s some young girl, doesn’t really know anything.”

Now _that’s_ interesting. Kuwei remembers Marya from some of the dinners his father used to hold. As a child he’d always found them incredibly boring, but his father had always teased him about how, someday, he’d be the one in charge of Voltron so he’d better get used to them fast. Every time, he’d sit across from Nina and they’d communicated through a series of head movements they’d invented.

But, anyway, Marya had always seemed just as competent as her husband. She was smart, his father always said; if something happened to Vaneck, she could probably replace him. Beyond that, she was kind; she always seemed to give Kuwei time even when circumstances were dire. To hear she’d been replaced by a clueless young girl…

Well, it would certainly show how Vaneck must have changed.

Of course, it had been 10,000 years. Many things had probably changed.

“Sorry, what was it you wanted to ask me?” Kuwei says after a moment, forgetting the tangent they’d found themselves on.

Wylan briefly startles, but then says, “Oh, right. I was thinking… I’m kind of recognizable, you know? I mean, not _that_ much because I am a disgrace and all that, but still enough that… I don’t know if I want my face to be seen everywhere. Do you understand?” Kuwei nods, and he continues, “So, I remember hearing stories from my mother about Alteans and how they were always shapeshifters, and I was wondering…”

“You want us to change how you look?”

Wylan just blinks at him for a moment, bright yellow eyes fluttering. “Uh, yes.”

Kuwei considers for a moment. On one hand, there must be advantages to having the (former) heir to the Galra empire on their side; on the other hand, his concerns were valid. “That can be arranged, although Nina will have to see to you later. She’s much better at this than I am.”

 

Lying on the table, staring up into lights that seem too bright and clinical, it’s hard for Inej to not be There. Every time the scanner passes over her she’s reminded of a vague memory, something hidden just beyond the reaches of her mind. _Probably after the big fight,_ she realizes.

But then she remembers that the lights There were always purple, not a blue-tinted white, she would be restrained, and whoever was conducting the… whatever was happening would be silent, not quietly muttering encouragements. Every time her heart speeds up, Nina whispers a soft, “You’re okay, you’re here, you’re safe.”

Before she knows it, the tests are done and Jesper comes back into the room, shaking his head. When it’s his turn he struggles less on the table, although she does notice the way he tightly shuts his eyes (well, eye; the Galra one just clouds over) the entire time.

It takes Nina a moment to look over the data, and then she projects the body diagram again. “I’ve made an average sized human for comparison. Or, at least it’s hopefully average. You are all on different extremes. Anything purple represents Inej, blue represents Jesper, and yellow represents Kaz-”

“Um, excuse me, but I’m actually Matt-”

“Okay, whatever. Anyway…”

It turns out that none of them are heavily modified. Matthias bears differences in his musculature, as if his muscles were somehow slightly enhanced. Other than that, there are traces of Galra elements, probably from healing he’d required after fights. Jesper’s only modifications come around his eye, with evidence of tampering to his ocular nerve and the part of the brain controlling vision. And for Inej, nothing exists besides some modifications around her metal arm.

It’s a relief, in a way, to know they are mostly the same person they were before Kerberos.

They’re almost finished comparing when the door slides open, startling all of the four gathered around Nina’s pad. In walks Kaz, leaning on the cane/weapon the Galra had given him, uneven gait especially obvious in the pristine surroundings. “I heard you wanted to scan me,” he says, voice flat.

Jesper stares at him. “You told me, and I quote, ‘Fuck no’.”

“I changed my mind. Is that not allowed?”

It seems to take Nina longer to process his results. When she does project them, she skips through most of the scans and stays on the one for Galra metals. At first, Inej wonders why the scan is filled with red while the others had a black background, but then she notices the brighter shades around his joints and how it tapers off towards the edges.

Nearly his entire body scan is highlighted in red.

“Who would have thought I had a reason for not wanting to come down,” Kaz says, abruptly sitting up and taking his leave. Before reaching the door, however, he turns around and says, “Thanks, Matt.”

 

That night, Inej tries to sleep. She really does.

Part of her is exhausted from the actual escape; the running and stress of the whole day leaves her bones aching. Plus there’s the sleepless nights for days beforehand, the constant vigilance, the checking and rechecking  of the plan…

In short, it’s been days since she’s slept peacefully. Maybe even weeks. She’s so used to functioning on very little sleep that she’s hardly even realized how long it’s been.

She also almost cries in relief when Nina shows her to a room with a bed in it- an actual bed, with a hard-ass mattress, that’s _hers_. Their last room had had a cot of sorts, but it was just as hard as the floor and left her neck sore every morning. But this looked heavenly.

So Inej lays down, closes her eyes, mentally counts as high as she can get, and tries to fall asleep, but it never comes. Part of her feels empty, and every few seconds a strange panic creeps into her until she counts louder and focuses on her breathing.

It doesn’t take long for her to think _Jesper, where’s Jesper, is he all right where did he go what happened_ and she’s sitting up in bed, looking around wildly, heart racing because _something_ bad must have happened to him-

And then she remembers where she is and she slinks back down under the thin blanket. She tries to sleep again, but the same thing happens soon after.

That’s when Inej officially gives up on sleep for the night, wraps the blanket around her shoulders, and heads towards Jesper’s room.

  


“Good morning, paladins,” Kuwei says to the motley crew gathered around him. He resists the urge to rub sleep out of his eyes after the thirty dobash nap he took after, with much hard work, locating the three remaining Lions. _Project strength_ , he tells himself. _Only Nina can know you have no idea what you’re doing_.

Well, Nina and Inej. After all, Inej had walked into the control room while he was fast asleep, drooling onto the console.

“I trust you all slept well?” Nina says from behind him, looking far more alert than Kuwei feels. Her question is met with vague blinks from the five paladins, all dressed in ill-fitting Altean clothes and with mussed up hair. Actually, he only gets blinks from _four_ of the paladins. Jesper’s full attention is on Wylan, who now looks vaguely like a light-skinned, vaguely fuzzy-eared human with strange, glowing eyes.

“Well, anyway, I was able to locate the Lions overnight.” Kuwei, in a very familiar motion by now, pulls up the starfield. “As we told you all last night, each Lion forges a powerful bond with its paladin that cannot be forced. While you all slept, I… um… communicated with the Lions in order to find out whom each one chose.”

Inej yawns. Kaz looks at him suspiciously. Kuwei choses to ignore them and continue. “The Black Lion forms the head of Voltron; as such, its paladin must be a natural leader who can stay calm in any circumstance. Inej, the Black Lion chose you. It’s currently located inside the Castle and cannot be accessed until the other Lions are found.” Inej doesn’t respond beyond shrugging and giving him a look meaning either determination or exhaustion. Kuwei decides to take that as a good sign.

“The Green Lion is naturally curious and clever. Its chosen pilot has to be, um… smart. That’s you, Wylan. We located it on a nearby planet full of forests. It’s very peaceful there, actually.” Wylan offers him a smile and a nod.

After, he turns to the big one. “And then we’ve got the Yellow Lion, which is one of the legs and is thus required to support the rest of the team. Its pilot must be kind and selfless, which is why this one is yours, Kaz.”

“Oh, actually, I’m Matthias, not Kaz-”

“The Red Lion is the most temperamental and aggressive of all of the Lions. Its paladin must be reckless and skilled, and that’s you, _Kaz_.” Kaz doesn’t even react.

“Jesper, you’ve got the Blue Lion. It requires someone friendly and outgoing-” _don’t say handsome, don’t say handsome_ \- “And it was found on some small, mostly aquatic planet far away from here.”

“Wait up a minute,” Jesper says. “Do you have any details about this small aquatic planet?”

“Uh…” Kuwei says, zooming in on the planet in question. It’s not named, which is unusual. “It’s fairly insignificant, and either uninhabited or with primitive life.”  
“Wait, zoom out.” He does, not quite understanding why this matters so much.

“Oh my god,” Jesper says, and a gasp rises through all but Wylan. “That’s _Earth._ ”

 

“Kuwei,” Nina says. “ _Kuwei._ Please listen to me _for once_.”

Finally, he startles out of the books he’s been flipping through. “What is it? Can’t you just let me focus?”

“Kuwei. You’ve been looking through the books for _two vargas_. We have one varga until they’re awake. You need to either hurry up and the find the information, or-”

It’s like she has a revelation and everything in the universe has clicked into place.

“-Or?” Kuwei says, going back to reading.

“ _Or_ we can just make it up,” she says, dreamlike.

Kuwei just stares at her.

“If you think about it we _know_ they’re the new paladins, right? So we can just make up the lion assignments and if they’re wrong we can just go ‘oops, we were wrong, silly quintessence changes and we’re just too smart to see it’ and then switch it around, and they _never have to know._ ”

Kuwei, again, just stares at her. But this time he says, “You’re a genius.”

He pulls out a little information pad and starts writing down notes. “So we’ve got Red already, which is good. Should we go top down, or…?”

“Top down sounds good.”  
“All right, so for Black-”

“The tiny one,” Nina says without hesitating. “She’s tiny. Did you see how tiny she is? Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the smallest one had the largest Lion?”

“... You’re brilliant,” Kuwei says, writing it down. “Okay. So we have the left arm. Green?”

Nina taps her finger against her lips. “That’s the smart one, right?”

“... How should I know?”

“Kuwei, that was _your father’s Lion._ ”

He just shrugs. “I don’t know, I never paid attention to what the qualities were.” Nina rolls her eyes, but he says, “We’ll put the Galra one there. He seems smart.”

“Sounds good enough. So then we’ve got Blue.”

“Oh, the tall one. Like, not the big one, the tall one. He’s like 90% leg anyway.”

“Okay, that works.”

“Also, I think he’d look really good in blue.”

“Kuwei, please stay focused. You didn’t even write that down.”

“Oh, sorry.” He finishes his note, and then adds, “So the big one for Yellow?”

“I guess?” Nina says. “I mean, he seems nice. My mom was nice. I suppose it works?”

“Excellent. That didn’t take long at all!”

“Yeah, you’re right. Except…”

“Except?”

“ _Except we have no idea where they are._ ”

Kuwei just groans and pulls up the starfield.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this was originally supposed to be merged with the next chapter, where the plot actually begins, but everyone had a lot of feelings so i split it up. happy reading!

**Author's Note:**

> this is ridiculously self indulgent but i regret nothing. there will be updates, but i'm not sure how frequent they'll be. let me know if you have any questions, especially if you're unfamiliar with voltron!
> 
> you can find me on [tumblr](http://pippims.tumblr.com) where i'm always willing to scream about my gay space children. or my gay murder children. or my gay murder children in space. also check out [libby](http://helvr.tumblr.com), who is always willing to scream with me about aus. she's great guys.


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